Sunday marked the official last day of our fantasy baseball season. For some teams, your season was unofficially over in late July. And if you're the manager of Thor's Hammer...you're developing a bad habit of making that be the case most years. Regardless of where you finished everyone experienced some hi's and low's in their season, well except for Mookie Monster...he pretty much had all lows, and deserves some recognition of your accomplishments. Or lack thereof. Without further ado...your season in review from bottom to top.
A reminder for the MVP and LVP...I look for guys who really outperformed their draft pick. For example, Jose Altuve was picked #1 overall and finished #2 on the player rater. He may be the best player on a given team, but finished where he would be expected to finish according to where he was drafted. For LVP, it's the same idea except going in the other direction.
#12 Mookie Monster (won $11.66)
It was a rough year for Mookie Monster. His two wins came in weeks 11 and 15, which leave his 0-9-1 start has the second worst start of a year in BGT FBL history. He has some solid options for keepers in Mookie Betts, Ian Happ, and/or Joan Moncada, so we'll see if he can draft better in 2018 and see different results. MVP: Didi Gregorious who he picked up off the waiver wire at the End of April and ended our season as the #9 SS. LVP: Tie between Yo-anus Cespedes (3rd rd) and Kyle Seager (4th rd)...two draft picks that performed well below expectations.
#11 Well Played Mauer (won $0.00...ouch)
One of the first teams to announce his fire sale, Well Played Mauer could never really get on the right track. Things look promising after a week 1 win but that was followed up by an 0-3-1 stretch with a few more wins sprinkled in the rest of the season. Including the playoffs, he ended the year on a 0-5-1 including a rare 0-12-0 loss in week 19 to the eventual league champion. MVP: Mike Moustakas who was drafted 18th round and had a career year with 37 bombs. LVP: This is going to be harsh, but way too many to pick just one. Most of his draft picks underperformed according to where he drafted them.
#10 Minnesota Twins (won $5.00...better than nothing!)
For the second year in a row, it didn't take long for Minnesota Twins manager Brian Michaud to forget that he had a fantasy baseball team. MVP: Miguel Sano (because I am a homer) was drafted in the 9th round and was having a stellar year before his injury. LVP: the manager himself.
#9 Thor's Hammer (won $23.33)
I have to be nice-ish here otherwise Cam will get butt hurt. Thor's Hammer wasn't too far behind Mookie Monster to start the year...1-6-2 in the first 9 weeks yet he was determined to make a rebound. Must have been sometime in early July when he was about 5 games out of the playoffs and he texted asking "if I win out...can I make the playoffs?". The honest answer was yes, but the realistic answer was no. Nonetheless, he battled and ended up playing spoiler in the last few weeks of the season finishing 5-2-1 and providing key losses to **JP**, Washed Up AF, and Seager Bros, Inc. MVP: Giancarlo Stanton who somehow fell to the 4th round and is now trying to break the real home run record. LVP: Arguably the LVP of the entire league...Miguel Cabrera who he drafted 8th overall. Ouch.
#8 Seagers Bro's, Inc (won $30.02)
Yes, when there is a 3 way tie for the weekly category I give myself the extra penny. Consider it a tip from you all to myself. It was a very average year for Seager Bro's, Inc. as he never went on much of a winning streak and only experienced a true losing streak in the last few weeks of the season when it mattered most. Otherwise, it was win one week, lose one week; win two weeks, lose two weeks; etc. He did end up winning the consolation championship which will give him the 1st pick in the 3rd round, but other than that there isn't much to look back on. MVP: Robbie Ray...an 18th round draft pick who ended our season as the #10 SP. LVP: Aroldis Chapman who was the 60th overall pick, but ended up as the 30th reliever.
#7 **JP** (won $20.00)
**JP** went back and forth with Seager Bro's, Inc for the #7 spot in the standings most the season. The path to their records was very similar (see above), but then something happened to JP's team. From week 17 to the final week of the playoffs **JP** went 7-1-0 including a rare 12-0-0 drubbing. Even more impressive is that it was against KK Kluber who was the #1 team at the time. His 5 game win streak to end the season made for an interesting 3 way tie for the final playoff spot, which is where he fell out of the mix. MVP: Corey Kluber/Aaron Judge - Kluber was drafted by **JP** as the 6th SP off the board but finished at #1. He flipped Kluber for Aaron Judge during the season. LVP: Seung-Hwan Oh who was drafted #75 overall and barely finished in the top 75 at his position.
#6 Team Pup 'N Suds ($13.33)
He enjoyed a nice 6-1-0 streak in the middle of the season, that put him in the upper half of the standings and he never looked back. He finished the last 7 weeks of the regular season with a 2-4-1 record which forced him into a three way tie breaker, but he prevailed as the 5th seed. Unfortunately, his downward trend continued in the playoffs getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs by Washed Up AF and going 0-1-1 against Trout's Back Bitches in the final two weeks. MVP: Anthony Rendon drafted at #101 and finished as #66. LVP: Another candidate for league LVP...Jose Bautista.
#5 Trout's Back Bitches ($20.00)
I love when you guys make me write inappropriate words on a work computer. If my memory serves, which it usually doesn't, this team was outside of the playoffs when Trout came back (bitch). But then he lived up to his team name and was able to clinch a the #6 seed on the last day of the playoffs in a three way tie breaker. His first year in the league after replacing a back to back champion could have been better, as he enjoyed mini winning streaks at times but suffered through an equal amount of mini losing streaks. MVP: Former Twins great Eduardo Nunez who was drafted #157 overall and finished #64 on the player rater and #7 at SS. (Hey, we didn't need him) LVP: Ryan Braun drafted #36 overall and finished at #35 at his position alone.
#4 I'm Never Gonna Win Now ($10.00)
Such a good year...for only $10. I think this makes two years in a row where Lemmage has actually paid full attention to his roster and look how he is rewarded! He spent most the year in the top part of the standings thanks to a 4-0-1 start and a 4-2-2 finish. That said, he could never jump into the 1st round bye conversation with a very middling performance from weeks 6 to 13. He didn't need the first round bye as he got past the aforementioned team, but a disappointing second week lead to a 3rd place game which he then also lost. MVP: Jake Lamb drafted as the 14th 3rd basemenand finishing as the 7th best 3B in our league. LVP: Masahiro Tanaka drafted as the 18th SP but finished rated the #36 in our league.
#3 Washed Up AF ($63.33)
I believe this is the 3 straight year Musser has found himself battling for 3rd place, and the 2nd time he has come away with the 3rd place title. Things didn't look good in the first quarter of the season as he started 2-3-1. Then he got hot going on a 7 game winning streak, followed by a 0-2-1 record, then finished the season 4-1-0. For those of you counting at home that's 11 wins in the last 15 weeks of the season. It wasn't until the second to last week of the season that Musser was eliminated from that first round playoff bye. MVP: Aaron Judge/Corey Kluber - see explanation above under **JP**. He was able to flip Judge for Kluber and Segura mid season. LVP: Trea Turner who was drafted #21 overall and barely finished in the top 100 of the player rater.
#2 KK Kluber ($183.33)
He got "crime'd". He held the #1 spot for majority of the season just to lose it in the last week. In the end, it didn't really matter..he still got a first round bye and it still lead to a #1 v. #2 match up in the championship game. It was a tight battle all week, but he could not prevail in the end. His regular season record indicated that he won two games for each one that he lost, but his schedule says a different story. Outside of a 5 week stretch in the middle of the season where he went 2-2-1, he sprinted to a 6-1 start, and ended the season 6-3-0. MVP: Chris Sale is having a historic season after being drafted #16 overall. I actually don't get how he is behind Kluber on the player rater. LVP: Johnny Cueto who was drafted #45 overall and ended up as the #82 overall SP.
#1 Team Reints (won $220.00)
Does this dude ever have a bad year? I'm hoping to update the Handbook this year and calculate how much money everyone has one. The point being that he has to be up almost $1K in this league, yet can never draft with us in person? Oh and he flies for free. Look Crime, if you're gonna steal our money every year the least you could do is grace us with your presence for draft day. The invincible manager looked human through week 9 with a 5-3-1 record (PS - yes, he's so good every year that a 5-3-1 record is a bad look for him). Albeit, he was just playing with our heads finishing the season, playoffs included, with a 12-2 record including a dominating 2nd round victory over I'm Never Gonna Win Now. MVP: The manager himself. Look at his line up and try and figure out how he has the players he has while only giving up a 14th round draft pick. LVP: Starling Marte who he drafted 35th overall and ended as the #86 OF.
Thanks for another great year gentlemen! I look forward to competing with you all in the 2018 season. Good luck to everyone in their fantasy football endeavors!
With Love,
Commish
